NCJ Number
151662
Date Published
1992
Length
704 pages
Annotation
This volume integrates theoretical and empirical research into a comprehensive presentation of the principles of criminology.
Abstract
The first part examines the facts related to crime and juvenile delinquency and relates them to Sutherland's theories of differential association and differential social organization. The factual data examined include variations of crime and delinquency rates with age, sex, race, socioeconomic status, education, and other variables, as well as the incidence among criminals and juvenile delinquents of various physical, psychological, and social characteristics and processes. Differential association theory and alternative theories of crime causation are evaluated with respect to their comparative capacity to account for the facts. The second part of the volume examines facts regarding the control of crime and juvenile delinquency and relates them to sociological and psychological theories of punishment and intervention as well as to differential association and differential social organization theories. The discussion focuses on corporal punishment, imprisonment, probation, and group therapy as societal reactions to crime. The conflict between punishment and treatment of criminals is document, as are the consequences of this conflict for the organization and operation of police, courts, probation departments, parole agencies, and prisons. The implications of differential association and differential social organization theories for correctional administration and for rehabilitation are explored. Index and more than 1,500 references